England captain Joe Root said his team didn’t bowl the right lengths during the second Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval. He admitted that England should have batted and bowled better in the match. England are staring at a whitewash in the Ashes after losing the second match by 275 runs.
“I am fine. It was rough day (yesterday), feel a bit better today (smiles). When we look at ball in hand, I don’t think we bowled the right lengths, we needed to bowl fuller. As soon as we did that in the second innings, we made it harder for them. It’s disappointing because we made the same mistakes that we made four years ago. We could have bowled better and should have batted better,” said Root in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Root insisted that England have the gumption to turn things around in the last three Tests in Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart if they don’t repeat their mistakes from the first two matches.
“We have to be (confident) about turning things around. I’m confident that we have all that we need to win here. Just need to stop repeating the same mistakes. We have to get through that first 20 minutes and then go greedy, need to leave better as well. Need to also manage certain passages of play better. Certainly, capable of it,” he said.
The 30-year-old was in praise of wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler’s 207-ball resistance on day five of the Adelaide Test, saying England have to take a leaf out of his defiance for the rest of the series.
“Yes, that’s the attitude (on Buttler’s defiance) we needed to harness through the whole game. I feel we competed in patches, but we need to fight the whole game. That’s what is needed to win here. The attitude today was brilliant. We just need to do more of it. I expect us to have that mentality for the rest of the series,” England captain said.
